Police check boat's GPS in Lake Erie homicide probe

Investigators hope system can help pinpoint location of missing Albion-area woman whose husband is charged with killing her.

Tim Hahn @ETNHahn

Pennsylvania State Police investigators continued hunting down records Thursday in their ongoing probe into the disappearance of an Albion-area woman in Lake Erie this past weekend.

As Karen Leclair, 51, remained missing Thursday and her 48-year-old husband, Christopher S. Leclair, sat in the Erie County Prison without bond on a charge of killing her, investigators were running down information from a GPS system seized from the commercial fishing boat the pair were last seen on together, said Lt. Wayne Kline, crime section supervisor for state police Troop E.

Kline said investigators are still trying to find Karen Leclair's body and are working to pinpoint Christopher Leclair's exact locations on the water. Troopers were tracking down his routes on the boat on Saturday and Sunday, and they hope data from the boat's GPS system can help narrow the search, Kline said Thursday.

"The trouble is we really have a big span of time, 24 hours in essence, when we last saw her on video to when he reported (her missing), and he was out on the water at least eight hours over the course of it," Kline said.

Surveillance video showed Christopher Leclair and his wife on the boat leaving the East Basin docks, near Dobbins Landing in Erie, on Saturday, but only Christopher Leclair on the boat when he returned later that day. Christopher Leclair reported on Sunday that his wife fell overboard that day and was missing.

Kline said investigators were also working to obtain records from the Leclairs' cellphones and were looking into the couple's financial records.

State police served search warrants on the cellphones and on the Leclairs' home at 9670 Route 6N, in Elk Creek Township, as part of the investigation. Authorities initially reported that the Leclairs lived in nearby Albion.

According to the affidavit filed with the search warrants for the phones, Christopher Leclair told troopers during an interview on Monday that he had financial trouble "and by his own admission can barely afford his house." Among the items sought by police in the search of the house was financial documentation concerning life insurance policies and bank statements, according to the search warrant for the house.

The search warrant for the house had not been returned as of Thursday afternoon.

Karen Leclair became the focus of a missing person investigation on Sunday at 1:41 p.m., when investigators said Christopher Leclair made a distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard reporting that his wife had fallen overboard from their 52-foot boat, the Doris-M. Authorities said on Sunday that Karen Leclair, who was not wearing a life vest, was reported to have fallen in the lake about 2¼ miles northwest of the Presque Isle Lighthouse.

The case turned into a homicide investigation after investigators said Christopher Leclair gave them several inconsistent statements, and a check of surveillance video from Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority cameras showed that the Leclairs were last seen on the boat together when they departed the East Basin aboard the Doris-M on Saturday at about 12:45 p.m.

According to information in the criminal complaint filed against Christopher Leclair, the surveillance cameras captured the Doris-M returning to the East Basin and docking away from its assigned slip before Christopher Leclair exited the boat and left the area alone on Saturday at about 4:45 p.m., and captured Christopher Leclair returning to the boat alone on Sunday at 12:02 p.m., and then departing the East Basin on the Doris-M alone.

The Doris-M returned to the East Basin on Sunday at 5:45 p.m., followed by a Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission boat, troopers wrote in the affidavit accompanying the complaint.

Tim Hahn can be reached at 870-1731 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNhahn.

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